Beyond Meat Soars After Issuing First Earnings Report Since Public Debut

Beyond Meat (BYND) , the maker of meat alternatives, rose 30% in trading Friday to $129 after it posted a first-quarter loss narrower than analysts' expectations and revenue that topped forecasts.

The adjusted loss in the quarter was 14 cents a share vs. expectations of a loss of 15 cents. Revenue rose 215% to $40.2 million and beat forecasts of $38.9 million. Beyond Meat reported revenue of $38.8 million from fresh foods and about $4.5 million from frozen foods.

Beyond Meat's earnings report was its first since it debuted as a public company in May.

The net loss in the quarter was $6.6 million, or 95 cents a share, vs. a year-earlier loss of $5.7 million, or 98 cents.

"We are very pleased with our successful IPO during the month of May and our strong first-quarter financial results that we believe demonstrate mainstream consumers' desire for plant-based meat products in the United States and internationally," said Ethan Brown, Beyond Meat president and CEO. "Our team continued to scale our business in both retail and foodservice as we benefited from broad-based growth in the first quarter. Looking ahead, we believe we are in the early stages of achieving the growth that Beyond Meat is capable of as we remain focused on efforts to increase brand awareness, expand our distribution channels, launch additional innovative products, and invest in our infrastructure and capacity to be able to serve a robust global market for plant-based meats."

The plant-based meat maker said for the year it expects revenue to increase 140% to $210 million, with adjusted EBITDA at break-even. Analysts were expecting fiscal-year revenue of $204.9 million.

"We're being very conservative and viewing this as a floor," Brown said in a conference call regarding Beyond Meat's full-year outlook.